The Vietnam War

Essential Questions • Was it possible for the United States to have

definitively won the Vietnam War?

• What experiences did American soldiers undergo in

Vietnam?

• How did the American public feel about the war in

Vietnam, and how did these feelings change over

time?

• What different perspectives did young people take

regarding the Vietnam War at the time? What might

have been some of the reasons for these opinions?

• In what ways was the Vietnam War a defining event

for an entire generation of Americans?

Indochina

• Vietnam, Laos, and

Cambodia

• Mountainous terrain

• Deltas:

– Red River (north)

– Mekong (south)

• Tropical rainforests

Vietnam in the Mid-20th Century

• French colony from late

19th century to WWII

• Japan invaded in WWII

• Ho Chi Minh and the Viet

Minh led independence

movement

• Democratic Republic of

Vietnam

• Power vacuum

Ho Chi Minh in 1945

• Ho Chi Minh declared

independence in 1945;

received U.S. support

• War with France broke

out in 1947

• Vietnam received

assistance from

communist China

• U.S. supported France

The First Indochina War

French soldiers in combat in Indochina, 1953

Eisenhower and J.F. Dulles

• Eisenhower took office in

1953

• Pressured France for a

more aggressive strategy

and a timetable for

victory

• France agreed in

exchange for financial

assistance

• Dulles predicted victory

by the end of 1955

Eisenhower and Dulles

Dien Bien Phu and the End of French Colonial Rule

• The American and French

plan failed

• Viet Minh attacked French

forces at Dien Bien Phu

• U.S. did not provide military

assistance to the French

• Major victory for Viet Minh

Dien Bien Phu

The Geneva Accords and Aftermath

• Treaty officially ended

French foreign involvement

in Indochina

• Vietnam divided:

– Communist North

– U.S.-supported, Catholic

South

• Elections to unite the country

will be held in 2 years. The Ho Chi Minh Trail (A supply

line through Laos and Cambodia to

South Vietnam appears in orange

at the bottom of this map

The Geneva Accords and Aftermath (continued)

• Ngo Dinh Diem took

power in 1955

• Viet Cong threatened to

overthrow Diem

• U.S. opposed mandated

unification election

Ngo Dinh Diem

The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese

• Viet Cong: communist

revolutionaries in South

Vietnam

• North Vietnam: Ho’s

communist government

• North Vietnamese Army

(NVA)

• North Vietnam wanted the

Viet Cong to appear as if

fighting independently

• Tactics

A Viet Cong soldier

Instability in South Vietnam

• Kennedy expanded aid to

South Vietnam

• Protests by Buddhists

• U.S. supported overthrow and

assassination of Diem

• Popular support for

communists in South

increased after the

assassination of President

Diem

During ceremonies at Saigon in 1962, the

Vietnamese Air Force pledged its support

for Diem after a political uprising and an

attempt on his life

Discussion Questions

1. Why did the U.S. end its support for Ho Chi Minh

and back France in the First Indochina War? Do you

think this was a good strategy? Why or why not?

2. What were the Geneva Accords, and what impact

did they have on Vietnam?

3. What was the relationship between the Viet Cong

and the North Vietnamese government? Why did

North Vietnam want to keep this relationship a

secret?

Containment and the “Domino Theory”

• Kennedy began to call

for limited withdrawal

of advisors

• Johnson wanted

escalation

• The domino theory of

communism’s spread

• U.S. policy of

containment U.S. advisors in Vietnam, 1964

LBJ: Why Escalation?

• U.S. wanted to maintain

its international respect

and reputation

• Hoped to prevent

communist China’s

expansion

• Johnson’s political

concerns and ego

• Believed North Vietnam

would give up its goals

with gradual escalation

Secretary of State Dean Rusk (left) and

President Johnson

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident

• Top-secret missions

against North Vietnam

from 1961

• August 2, 1964: Attack

on U.S destroyer by

NVA torpedo boats;

U.S. fired first

• August 4: Alleged

second NVA attack

against U.S. destroyer Photograph of action viewed from the

U.S.S. Maddox during the Gulf of

Tonkin Incident

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident (continued)

• Based on second

“attack,” Johnson

ordered retaliatory

airstrikes

• Gulf of Tonkin

Resolution allowed

military action without

declaration of war

• Recent evidence shows

that second attack never

happened President Johnson signing the Gulf of

Tonkin Resolution

Aerial Bombing Begins

• Aerial bombing campaign

began in March 1965

(“Operation Rolling

Thunder”)

• U.S. wanted to end North

Vietnam’s support for the

Viet Cong

• Bombing campaigns not

effective toward this goal

The Ground War • Number of ground troops

grew rapidly

• “Search and destroy”

missions

• Caused difficulties for

the South Vietnamese:

loss of farmland,

inflation, refugees

• Many South Vietnamese

came to see the U.S. as

the enemy

U.S. troops during a

“search and destroy” mission

Westmoreland’s Strategy • Gen. William

Westmoreland

• War of attrition

• Large-scale ground and

air attacks

• Viet Cong and NVA

fought a smaller-scale

guerilla war; difficult for

U.S. to counter

• Attrition did not work

• “Logistical miracle”

General Westmoreland with

President Johnson

American Allies’ Views of the War

• Traditional European allies did not contribute;

France openly opposed the war

• Pacific Rim allies included Australia, S. Korea,

New Zealand, Thailand, and the Philippines

• All small and reluctant contributions

• Support waned as the war went on

American Soldiers in Vietnam

• Terrible conditions in

the Vietnamese jungle

and swamps

• Constant vigilance

• Hard to distinguish

Viet Cong from South

Vietnamese villagers

• Some turned to drug

abuse

• Low morale

U.S. Marines march through the

Vietnamese jungle

Weaponry

• Bombers and

fighters

• Tanks and armored

personnel carriers

• Troops’ individual

weapons: rifles,

mortars, grenades,

mines

• “People sniffers”

Phantom and Corsair fighters release bombs

during a strike mission

Weaponry (cont.)

• Chemical incendiary

devices (e.g., napalm)

• Agent Orange:

– Killed jungle foliage

– Caused genetic defects

• Agent Blue:

– Destroyed crops

– Peasants more affected

than Viet Cong

A napalm strike

Women in the Vietnam War

• Thousands served in

various military and

civilian roles

• Noncombat roles

• Witnessed the same types

of atrocities as men

• Woman’s efforts not

highly recognized

• Vietnam Women’s

Memorial Project

Prisoners of War • Kept in North Vietnamese

prisons in or near Hanoi

• Horrendous conditions

• Interrogation and torture

increased after failed escape

attempt

• U.S. began to publicize prison

conditions

• Improvements after Ho’s death

• Continued controversy over some

POWs’ fate

Former POW John McCain, shortly

after his release in 1973

Discussion Questions

1. What was the domino theory, and how did it affect the U.S.

government’s decisions regarding Vietnam?

2. Why do you think that the U.S.’s European allies refused to

support its actions in Vietnam? Were they justified in doing

so? Explain.

3. Why did American ground troops have such a difficult time

fighting in Vietnam?

4. What was the flaw in General Westmoreland’s strategy of a

war of attrition with the NVA?

Public Opinion in the U.S.

• Most Americans supported the war early on

• Opposition began to spread more widely in 1966

• Many still remained supportive

• “Hawks” and “doves”

Boxer Muhammad Ali, convicted for

refusing to report for induction into the

military during the Vietnam War, appealed

his case to the Supreme Court and won

The Antiwar Movement: Ideologies • Three general categories

– Pacifists

– Radicals

– Antiwar liberals

• Did not always agree on the best protest strategies

The Antiwar Movement: Protests • Individual acts of protest:

– Burning draft cards

– Self-immolation

– Antiwar entertainment

• Group protests:

– Government and

associated buildings

– Draft boards, recruiters

– Weapons

manufacturers

The Antiwar Movement: Protests (cont.)

• Group protests:

– March on the

Pentagon (1967)

– “Teach-ins” and “sit-ins”

on college campuses

Federal marshals drag away a protester

after the march on the Pentagon

The Antiwar Movement: Leaders and Organizations

Pacifist movement:

• Often Quakers or

Unitarians

• Dr. Benjamin

Spock and SANE

Famous “baby doctor” Benjamin Spock was a

vocal opponent of the war

The Antiwar Movement: Leaders and Organizations (cont.)

• Some grew out of the

civil rights movement:

– Students for a

Democratic Society

(SDS)

– Free Speech

Movement

• The “New Left”

Mario Savio, a leader of the Free Speech

Movement, at a protest at the University of

California, Berkeley, 1966

Martin Luther King Jr.

• Hesitated to speak out because

of LBJ’s War on Poverty

• Became a vocal critic of the

war:

– Felt it morally irresponsible

– It diverted money from

antipoverty programs

• “Beyond Vietnam” speech

• Criticized for antiwar position

The Antiwar Movement: Impact

• Protests did little to change

public opinion about the war

(or may have increased

support for the war)

• Brought the war more closely

into the public eye

• Kept Johnson from drastically

escalating the war

1960s Counterculture and the War

• Mainly young people, but

did not represent all youth

• Not all hippies protested;

not all protesters were

hippies

• Late 1960s to early 1970s

• Dissatisfaction with 1950s

conservatism

• Musical influences and

cultural experimentation

Coming Home • Post-traumatic stress disorder

• Drug and alcohol addiction

• Veterans tended to resent

antiwar protesters

• Sometimes blamed for the

government’s mistake

• Faced a nation that wanted to

forget about the war

• Most did well upon their

return

Vietnam Veterans Against the War

• Organized in 1967

• Support groups and health-

care assistance for veterans

• Membership and prominence

grew after U.S. invasion of

Cambodia

• Operation RAW

The Draft: Lotteries

• Selective Service

System

• Draft lottery in 1969

• Some men received

deferments

• Many enlisted rather

than be drafted

• Draft ended in 1973

The first draft lottery,

December 1st, 1969

The Draft: Avoidance and Evasion

• Conscientious objectors

• Illegally burning draft

cards

• Fleeing the country,

usually to Canada

The Draft: Race and Class Issues

• The war drew attention to

class and racial tensions

• More poor men and minorities

had to serve in Vietnam

• African Americans tended to

strongly oppose the war

Discussion Questions

1. What led Martin Luther King Jr. to oppose the

Vietnam War?

2. Why do you suppose that some antiwar

organizations arose from the civil rights movement

of the 1950s and 1960s?

3. Do you think that the draft lottery was a fair way of

determining who was sent to fight in Vietnam? Why

or why not?

The Tet Offensive

• Tet: Vietnamese New Year

• North Vietnam launched

offensive despite cease-fire

• Focused on South

Vietnamese cities and towns

• North Vietnam lost

militarily

• Major psychological effect

on American public

• Destruction in South

Vietnam

Tet: The American Public Reacts

• Reduced confidence that the

United States was winning

the war

• Johnson considered adding

200,000 troops

• New York Times leaked

article about troop increase;

Johnson failed to respond

• Johnson reduced troop

increase and bombing of

North Vietnam

U.S. soldiers in the city of Hue during

the Tet Offensive

The Paris Peace Talks

• LBJ concerned about his

political reputation

• Suspended some bombing and

encouraged North Vietnam to

negotiate

• Slow pace, with contradictory

demands

• Talks languished until 1972

U.S. Ambassador-at-Large

Averell Harriman

The Election of 1968

• Johnson announced he

wouldn’t seek reelection

• Assassination of Robert

Kennedy

• Democratic National

Convention in Chicago

• Humphrey, Nixon, and

Wallace

• Nixon won the election

LBJ announcing his decision

not to run

The My Lai Massacre • Charlie Company entered

My Lai on search-and-

destroy mission

• Brutally massacred over

300 villagers

• Covered up for a year and

a half

• Fueled the antiwar

movement

• Led more Americans to

question the war strategy

Villagers killed in the My Lai massacre

Nixon’s War Leadership

• Nixon’s “secret plan”

• Nixon Doctrine

• “Vietnamization”

• Bombing under

Nixon far exceeded

LBJ’s

• Increased devastation

under Nixon’s watch

Nixon shaking hands with a

soldier in Vietnam

The Secret War in Cambodia • Secret bombing attacks

against Cambodia

• Cambodia officially

neutral

• Attacked Viet Cong and

NVA sanctuaries

• Nixon wanted to send a

message of support to

South Vietnam

• American public initially

unaware

Nixon announcing the bombing in

Cambodia

The Kent State Massacre • Protests against Nixon’s

war in Cambodia

• Four days of protests at

Kent State University

(OH)

• National Guard killed

four students

• Photos widely published

• Antiwar sentiments

increased

A map showing where the shootings occurred

The Pentagon Papers • Daniel Ellsberg leaked classified

documents to the New York Times

• Revealed that the government had

consistently misled the American

public about the Vietnam War

• Nixon filed injunction

• Supreme Court overturned

injunction

• Ellsberg tried for espionage;

charges dismissed

The Easter Offensive

• March 1972

• NVA invasion nearly reached

Saigon

• U.S. resumed bombing

attacks against North Vietnam

• Ended in September

• Both sides claimed victory

• The North gained some bases

in the South, and leverage at

peace negotiations

The Election of 1972

• Nixon vs. Senator

George McGovern

of South Dakota

• Nixon won by a

landslide

• Nixon promised

peace and

portrayed the

governor as a

radical

The Paris Peace Accords • Paris peace talks had stalled

for over three years

• Kissinger began meeting

secretly with Le Duc Tho in

1970

• Thieu rejected tentative

agreement in 1972

• Talks broke off in December

Henry Kissinger

The Paris Peace Accords (cont.) • Christmas Bombing of North Vietnam

• Peace accords signed on January 27, 1973

• Last American troops left Vietnam in March 1973

Signing the Paris

Peace Accords

The Fall of Saigon • NVA and Viet Cong took

Saigon in 1975

• U.S. military helped with

evacuations but failed to

rescue many South

Vietnamese who had helped

in the war effort

• South Vietnam came under

communist rule

• North and South united as the

Socialist Republic of Vietnam

A soldier stands guard as a

helicopter lands to evacuate U.S.

personnel from Saigon, 1975

The Aftermath in the U.S.

• More than 58,000

Americans killed; about

2000 missing

• Discussions concerning

political miscalculations

• Military lessons learned

• U.S. had spent $700

billion (today’s dollars)

• Budget deficit

Dead soldiers (background)

receive a rifle salute

Veterans After the War

• Hundreds of veterans

organizations

• Reunions

• Visits to Vietnam

• Some veterans prefer

to avoid talking

about the war

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

• Completed in

1982

• “The Three

Soldiers”

• Vietnam

Women’s

Memorial

• Vietnam

Memorial Wall “The Wall,” with the

Washington Monument in the

background

“The Three Soldiers”

Discussion Questions

1. How did the Tet Offensive affect public perceptions

of the Vietnam War in the U.S.?

2. What was the Nixon Doctrine, and what effect did it

have on U.S. conduct of the war?

3. Do you think that the New York Times was justified

in publishing the Pentagon Papers? Why or why

not?

4. What do you see as the most important result of the

Vietnam War? Explain.